Components
ASP has the following components to support Public-Private Partnerships:
The Ag-biotech Innovation Center is a bigger platform for already established agri companies to set up their own R&D facilities within ASP. ASP shall give access to the common facilities and exclusivity to operate. The Government of Andhra Pradesh supports its development of infrastructure through Research & Development funds. Currently ASP has 4 clients.
As a policy the members coming into AIC are required to develop a research collaboration with ICRISAT in an area which is mutually beneficial to both.
In December 2002 , ICRISAT joined hands with the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India to develop an Agri-Business Incubator (ABI) at ICRISAT-Patancheru under the Technology Business Incubators Scheme of DST.
The mission of ABI is to facilitate the creation of competitive agri-business enterprises through technology development and commercialization. Within a short span of just over three years, ABI has emerged as a champion in incubating several technologies and enterprises, such as the use of sweet sorghum for ethanol production, BT cotton, Bio Fermi BTA Fermentor, popularization and release of groundnut variety ICGV-91114, popularization of chickpea varieties JG-11 & KAK2 amongst the farmers of Andhra Pradesh, and organic farming.
The Agri-Business Incubator, helps new entrepreneurs / enterprises with handholding services starting from business conceptualization to implementation and scaling up. It is up to the choice of the entrepreneur / enterprise to choose the kind of service. Currently ABI houses 8 enterprises under its incubation. Key services include, business mentorship, business plan preparation, statutory support, common facilities.
The Government of India has awarded ABI the Best Technology Incubator Award for 2005.
Recent years have witnessed remarkable growth in the private sector investments in crop improvement, research and development, HPRC is an initiative of ICRISAT that was formed with the basic objective to increase the scope of accessibility to better hybrids by the poor farmer through effective public private partnerships. HPRC currently consist of 3 crops : Sorghum, Pearl millet and Pigeonpea. 35 seed companies are currently members of the consortium
Worldwide, about 3 billion kilograms of pesticides are applied each year at a cost of over US $ 40 billion. Despite this, problems continue, with resurgence of secondary pests, environmental pollution and pesticide residues in food, drinking water, and even milk. Biopesticides have shown great potential to replace/supplement chemical pesticides. It is in this backdrop that the BRC, an initiative of ICRISAT was formalized in January 2005 to deliver the research outputs and technologies leading to mass scale production of quality microbial biopesticides at low cost through effective public private partnerships.
BRC currently has 11 private companies as members supporting research.
NutriPlus Knowledge Center in Agri-Science Park @ ICRISAT is a platform for R&D and innovations in food processing with focus on cereals, legumes, fruits / vegetables, medicinal and aromatic plants.. The verticals for applied research are nutraceuticals, fortified foods, flavors and fragrances, phytoceuticals, functional foods, functional beverages, food additives and color bio-actives and enzymes, post-harvest management and bio-products. NutriPlus is a US $ 6 million project and being funded by governments of Andhra Pradesh and India. NutriPlus already has three interested partners waiting to commence R&D activities.
ICRISAT has entered into an MoU with the AP Tourism Department to develop the SAT Eco-Venture as an agricultural/environmental education program along with WWF - a partner in the Ag-biotech Innovation Center . The serene environment consisting of lakes, a golf course, natural habitat, forest, and cultural heritage buildings are being preserved to form an eco -tourism park, which can be accessed by members. This is an eco-tourism concept, what started as beautifying the natural serene landscape of ICRISAT to serve as demonstration and training platform to the visiting academia, farmers and visitors, is now a model for demonstrating scientific watershed development. Through ASP, ICRISAT envisages to replicate this model by inviting the hospitality and leisure industry to promote Ecotourism in the Semi Arid Tropic (SAT) areas.
